Thursday, October 27, 2016

Do I always cheer for the villain? An exhaustive analysis.

Some people say I like villains. It's true. Some people worry about me being a hidden sociopath because I like villains so much. It's not true. Some people say I'll just always cheer for the villain no matter what. Maybe true? That is what this post is going to investigate. I will be digging DEEP into my memory banks to come up with all the pieces of literature where I favoured the villain/antagonist, and all the pieces of literature where I favoured the hero/protagonist. BECAUSE SCIENCE, BITCHES.

Rules: 1. For a villain or hero to count as 'Favoured', I have to like/support them more than the opposite. If there are multiple heroes/villains in the piece of literature and 'main hero/villain' is not obvious, then I have to like the mentioned villain more than my most liked hero or vice versa.

2. An item shall not be included if I do not have a clear preference, or the character roles are not well-defined. There are extremely many pieces I have encountered where I either didn't connect to the characters enough to include them or that didn't stand out well in my memory. For instance, Die Hard is not included because I do not favour Bruce Willis or Alan Rickman whilst liking both characters. Man of Steel is not included because I didn't connect hugely to either General Zod or Superman. There are countless cases of both types in my memory. This list aims to be an investigation of who I favour in the cases where I have a clear investment in either side.

FAVOURED VILLAINS

Loki - 'Thor', The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World (Gray area anti-hero in Thor 2)

The Governor - The Walking Dead

Negan - The Walking Dead

Saruman - LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers

Darth Vader - Star Wars Episodes 4-6

Kylo Ren - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish - Game of Thrones

Tywin Lannister - Game of Thrones

Darth Maul - Star Wars Episode 1

Count Dooku - Star Wars Episode 2

Magneto - X-Men 1,2,3, First Class and Days of Future Past

Magneto - X-Men: The Animated Series

Kingpin - Daredevil Season 1

Cottonmouth - Luke Cage

The Man in Black - The Dark Tower Series

Agent Smith - The Matrix 1-3 (Although not so much after I completely grasped the philosophy of the movies)

President Logan - 24: Seasons 5 and 8

The Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Sephiroth - Final Fantasy 7

Kefka - Final Fantasy 6

Kuja - Final Fantasy 9

Revolver Ocelot - Metal Gear Solid 1-4

The T-1000 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The T-800 - Terminator

The Joker - The Dark Knight

Norman Osborn - Dark Reign and Siege of Asgard comic series

Loki - Numerous Thor comic series

Vegeta - Dragon Ball Z (He's an anti hero from Frieza saga onwards, but my original love for him came as a villain and carried through the entire series)

Team Rocket - Pokemon

Piccolo - Dragon Ball

Malcolm Merlyn - Arrow

Captain Cold - The Flash (I'm only counting him as a hero in Legends of Tomorrow)

Krelian - Xenogears

The Penguin - Gotham

Freddy Krueger - Nightmare on Elm Street

The Predator - Predator 1,2 and Predators

Iago - Othello

Roy Batty - Blade Runner

Dr Doom - All Fantastic Four comic series he appears in.

Albert Wesker - Resident Evil: All appearances

Skeletor - He-Man

All of the eco-villains - Captain Planet (I know, I'm horrible)

The Illusive Man - Mass Effect 2 and 3

Ra's Al Ghul - Batman Begins

Ba'al - Stargate: SG-1

Kane - Command and Conquer Series

Harrison Wells 'The Reverse Flash' - The Flash

Apocalypse - The Age of Apocalypse

Ming the Merciless - Flash Gordon

Snape - Harry Potter (Gray area)

Dr Evil - Austin Powers

FAVOURED HEROES

Guardians of the Galaxy - Guardians of the Galaxy

The Avengers - Avengers: Age of Ultron

Scott Lang 'Ant Man' - Ant Man

Captain America/Team Captain America - Civil War

Tony Stark 'Iron Man' - Iron Man 1-3

Batman - The Dark Knight Rises

Auron - Final Fantasy 10

John Locke - Lost

Jack Bauer - 24 Seasons 1,2,3,4,6,7,9

Kaim Argonar - Lost Odyssey

Crono and friends - Chrono Trigger

V - V for Vendetta

Deadpool - Deadpool (Gray Area)

Jessica Jones - Jessica Jones

The Punisher - Daredevil Season 2 (Gray Area)

Rean Schwarzer and Class VII - Trails of Cold Steel 1-2

Max Caulfield - Life is Strange

Bigby Wolf - The Wolf Among Us

Snape - Harry Potter (Gray area)

Doctor Strange - Doctor Strange

The Final tally off the top of my head is 51 times I've favoured the villain and a mere 20 where I've favoured the hero. That is verging on 3:1. There you go, science proves that in any given case that I develop a clear preference in literature, it is almost 3 times more likely that I will cheer for the villain than the hero.